Does anybody know what this is?

[wirelessworldinc]

This medal is 2in long x 1in wide, sterling silver. My aunt found it at a garage sale. Does anybody know anything about it? Thank you Mary ann

 

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[stefen]

Yep

 

[al-nm]

yup army gives one to each soldier didnt even have to qualify most times. when my unit qualified i was on KP duty and they still gave me a marksman badge.

 

[DaChief]

Hey Mary Ann,

These were and still are issued by the United States Army only. The other services have their own. They date back before WWII and some of them are actually sterling silver. The older ones have a safety pin type device to secure them to the uniform and the later ones have two straight push pins. I believe that the Army began using these around 1921 just after WWI. I am sitting here looking at a photo of my Dad from WWII and he is sporting his in the photo. They come in three flavors. Yours is the Expert and there is a Sharpshooter and then a Marksman. They rank in that order for shooting proficiency. The better the score, the higher the medal. The little attachments can be added for many different weapons. If a soldier qualifies as an Expert with one weapon and as a Marksman with another, the soldier gets two medals, one each for each level of qualification.

Yours appears to be the WWII vintage type and should be marked with Sterling on the back. It is in really good shape. Don't clean it to a point that you remove the black off of it. The black coloring is part of the badge. Use a jewelers cloth to clean the silver part only if you do anything.

Hope this helps,

DaChief

 

[wirelessworldinc]

Thank you for all of the replies guys. I was clueless as to what it was. That is what I love about this site. Mary ann

 

[Slipperyjack47]

Nice marksmanship medal! and the Avatar is awesome lookin too


HH
Slipperyjack47

 

[GL]

There could have been an additional tag with PISTOL on it originally depending on how good the guy was with his boomsticks.